Parks, scorpions and (no) ducks

Day 14 - We take a walk to Jianshan Park which is located opposite the Forbidden City. I would recommend you do this first before visiting the Forbidden City as the park gives you good views of the rooftops of the Forbiddden City and a good idea of its layout and size.

Rooftops of the Forbidden City

The sky is foggy from pollution and you can barely make out the sun. Jianshan park (unlike Beihai park which is also nearby) is admission-free and seems the more interesting as all the locals flock there. Everywhere in the park people gather to sing (chinese songs, 70s western songs), dance (aerobics, ballroom, line-dancing), play instruments and games. They all have their little cliques which makes for very interesting people watching.

We walk up the hill, from pavillion to pavillion (there are 3 I think) and take pictures of the Forbidden City's yellow rooftops from the highest one. JD and I pant all the way, completely demoralised by all these old people overtaking us along the way.

Lots of food on sticks for sale, so we buy and try some (sweet sausage is very good, so are the toffee crabappples).

After the park, we walk to Tianmen Square and then look for the Underground City - apparently China had built a maze of interconnecting tunnels underneath Beijing leading to neighbouring cities in case the Soviets attacked. We walk and walk and cannot find the damn place. Finally, whilst sitting by the road (looking very much like the locals in doing so), JD happens to spot the road name on a sign. We walk down an unassumming hutong alleyway and voila find it!! Admission is 20 Yuan for a rather quick tour around several tunnels (some lead to the shopping district we are about to visit next). Our 'english-speaking' guide, a youngish, modern looking girl dressed in combats takes us and several other tourists around. After going through various tunnels, we come to a brightly lit room which has been converted into a silk shop (no surprise there)... prolly the only part of the underground system that has been removated. The others in our group have obviously been taken to one too many shops in their so-called tours, tell our guide we're not interested in shopping and ask her to continue with the tour. We're all straining our ears trying to glean what little we can from Miss GI Jane here whilst she chatters about asking JD where he's from and other small talk (he is still being reminded of "Miss undergerr-round" mind you... ;P) .

Views of Tianmen Square...


Old timer

Kites in Tianmen Square..


Views around Tianmen...


Street leading to Underground City...

Underground City entrance
Miss Undergerround! (right, in combats)
Air shaft
Silk shop inside Underground City

We continue to the famous WangFujing street (equivalent to Piccaddilly Circus) with modern shops ( I choose an ultra expensive department store to use its toilet but still find it has squat-type ones ... wail!!!) and its side streets (Donganmen Da Jie) which house rows of stalls selling scorpions, starfish and sea horses on sticks. The scorpions are still alive and are moving whilst being impaled on these sticks - extremely cruel if you ask me. I simply refuse to buy anything from these people.
Wangfujing by night
Clock tower here chimes pop songs!
Scorpions
Those are skinned rats (middle)

We hunt for JD's famous peking duck for dinner, walk the entire road but cannot find it. We found a really good Hotpot restaurant though (a bit pricey - the bill came up to 128 Yuan) but really good. I ordered orange juice for drinks, got a chuckle from the waiter and then received an entire carton of OJ ( I don't think many people order this). We even get a discount coupon for our next visit (apparently ... I have no idea what it says but I'm hoping to get it translated soon).